Riders on the storm: the scientists who chase tornadoes - in pictures

With funding from the US National Science Foundation and other government grants, scientists and meteorologists from the Center for Severe Weather Research try to get close to supercell storms and tornadoes. They’re trying to better understand tornado structure and strength, how low-level winds affect and damage buildings, and to learn more about tornado formation and prediction.

Wed 17 May 2017 08.26 EDT

At the Center for Severe Weather Research headquarters in Boulder, Colorado, research meteorologist Karen Kosiba loads gear into the Doppler on Wheels (DOW) vehicle. DOW is a mobile doppler radar mounted on a truck that brings instruments directly into storms, allowing scientists to scan tornadoes and make 3D maps of wind and debris.

Hunter Anderson, a meteorology student at St. Cloud State University and intern with the Center For Severe Weather Research, inspects and prepares tornado pods in a scouting vehicle. The tornado pods are heavy metal discs with instruments that measure and map winds at ground level.

Standing next to a tornado scouting vehicle with weather instruments attached to its front, 40-year veteran of storm chasing Tim Marshall photographs a small funnel cloud that developed from a supercell thunderstorm during a tornado research mission in Elbert County, Colorado, 8 May, 2017.

A small funnel cloud develops during a supercell thunderstorm on 8 May. Supercells are the least common type of thunderstorm, and can produce severe weather, including high winds, large hail - and tornadoes. Supercells contain a deep and persistent rotating updraft called a mesocyclone.

Intern Hunter Anderson prepares tornado pods as a severe thunderstorm moves into the area in Paducah, Texas, 10 May. The storm did not produce a tornado, but the group was prepared to deploy the pods if one developed.

Instruments that measure wind speed, wind direction, barometric pressure and temperature are mounted atop a tornado scout vehicle during a supercell thunderstorm as it bears down on the area, 9 May, in Lamb County, Texas.